Shifting Norms, Changing Behaviour, Amplifying Voice: What Works? The 2018 International Social and Behaviour Change Communication Summit Featuring Entertainment Education

I wish to serve as a reviewer for 2018 International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit.  

Dr. R. Shashi Kumar, Professor of Economics, Bangalore University, India. 

It is critical to involve youths and adolescents in Sexual and Reproductive health programming if programmers and implementers want to make an impact and have results. Youths and adolescents should be involved in a meaningful way from programme design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. This will allow youths and adoelscents to have a stake in the process and also claim ownership of the programmes that benefit them. A notable example has been an organisation called Midlands AIDS Service Organisation (MASO) in Midlands Province of Zimbabwe. MASO worked with adolescents under a UNICEF project called Young People We Care programme. Youths and Adolescents both In and Out of School were involved in determining what priority activities and deliveranles should be included and there was constant tracking of deliverables with meaningful youths participation. That allowed the correctiona nd identification of any deviations from the expected deliverables and also any challenges that might have been anticipated or overlooked.

The results were amazing with youths setting priorities for the project and highlighting that sanitary pads were a priority for adolescent girls than books and other school materials which programmers had thought were important. This brought lots of lessons learnt and enabled development of future proposals based on needs on the ground fro youths and adolescents.

It brings the motto "Anything for youths without youths is against youths!"

Enock Musungwini

Hi 

I have been assigned abstracts written in French and i can only review abstracts in English. May be there was a mix up.

Enock Musungwini

According to a study by the National Teenage Fertility Study, Zimbabwe has the highest teenage fertility rate in sub-Saharan Africa. It is reported that between 500 000 and 700 000 teenagers fall pregnant every year and teenage pregnancy is one of the main causes of maternal mortality (ZDHS, 2017). Zimbabwe has a young population with adolescents 15-19 years constituting 24% of the total population (Zimstats, 2015).

A study by WHO (2010) found that teenage pregnancy is the leading cause of death among young women aged 15-19 worldwide, with complications during childbirth and unsafe abortions being major risk factors. Lack of adequate information to young girls and teenagers has been cited as one of the reasons why teenagers fall pregnant and fail to negotiate for safer sexual practices. It is therefore imperative that stakeholders, development partners and NGOs work together in a multi-sectoral and multidisciplinary way to increase access to SRH information and services to adolescent girls.

One of the ways is to work closely with school teachers in dissemination of SRH information to adolescent girls and boys in schools. The process will involve mentoring, orientating and training school teachers on basic SRH information linked to puberty and guidance and counselling. The teachers will then mainstream SRH information in school classes particularly guidance and counselling and other social studies so that school pupils will be exposed to SRH information including HIV/AIDS, STIs and menstrual hygiene.

In addition, teachers will also work with school peer educators who will be trained and mentored by teachers and development workers. The peer educators will promote SRH information dissemination in schools among fellow peers in peer to peer approach. There are various advantages of involving teachers and other pupils because it’s a sustainable way and also cost effective. The process capacitate the school system and also allows only teachers to interface with pupils using the pedagogy training they received at teacher training colleges. It also ensures accountability for teachers in terms of the content and type of information which they expose the pupils to.

Last but not list the process and initiatives need support of other stakeholders, parents and leaders so that there is an enabling environment for such processes to take place. It encourages and reinforces the information and prevents distortion so that when school pupils go home after school, they will get consistent support and reinforcement rather than conflicting information and facts. It is always critical and important to involve the beneficiaries particularly the special groups such as youths in terms of design and implementation so that the barrier to communication is overcome because adolescents as peers can reach each other in a non stigma and fearful way. As said by Lauren Reichelt “When we set out to improve life for others without a fundamental understanding of their point of view and quality of experience, we do more harm than good.

Enock is a Development, Health and Management practitioner with more than 15 years experience in SRH, HIV/AIDS, Adolescents, Family Planning and Reproductive Health Services. Enock holds an MBA; BSc Hons Psychology, Diploma in Nursing and Certificate in Health Management.

Thank you the reviewers for the excellent work done and for accepting my abstract.

To all colleagues in SBCC work, I look forward to connecting with you soon.

Various communication techniques were employed for informing Most At Risk Persons (Female Sex Workers) about HIV/AIDS, its spread and associated risks in order to bring in positive change in their behaviors #SBCCSummit

Stepping stones has been used to reduced gender based violence in Uganda. Want to find out how this was done? I will be presenting my paper at the #SBCC SUMMIT

Is anyone else using a superhero to promote behavior change? 

Maybe we can find out at the upcoming SBCC Summit!

Ba Futuru first brought Feto Fantástiku ba Dame (‘Fantastic Female Peacebuilder’) to life in 2013. This female superhero stars in six films made by Ba Futuru, a non-governmental organization that uses innovative approaches to reducing violence in the post-conflict country just North of Darwin, Australia.

 “Attack the problem, not the person” is the catch phrase of Feto Fantastiku. 

As Timor-Leste’s first superhero, Feto Fantástiku’s mission is to spread peace and help Timorese individuals, families and communities learn practical strategies for non-violent conflict resolution. Through this medium, Ba Futuru has worked to create positive behavior change by challenging the underlying beliefs that sanction violence against women and children. So far there are six short films in the Feto Fantástiku series. These films introduce Feto Fantástiku’s new sidekick, Mane Matenek (‘Smart Man’), who reinforces prevention messaging by speaks directly to men about masculinity, cultural issues and behavior change.

In Timor-Leste there is a high rate of illiteracy, which makes the use of film and community theater especially compelling for pushing forward positive social change. 

Check out Feto Fantástiku!

Improving HIV-control program effectiveness by replacing bicycle rides with an e-health system, was accepted for presentation. the art of technology revolution.

Method

Access to medical services and the quality of medical services offered to a population are supposed to be consistent, whether the patient is in a hospital in a city or at a remote clinic in a rural area. Medical services such as receiving laboratory test results should be delivered in a timely manner so that the patient can be treated earlier

The approach will automate and expedite test results transmission between the laboratory to the clinic whilst reducing the burden on human and financial resources.

app will (i) enable automatically transmitting viral load count results from the testing laboratory to rural health facilities, (ii) compare time from testing to treatment initiation/adaptation between results by courier/motorcycle and by the electronic system, and (iii) assess the electronic systems’ ability to increase patient involvement and adherence, by increasing the numbers of patients tested and initiated on HIV treatment, and by improving the ability of tracking patients’ records. 

"However, donors and others who support the field, and development policy makers who want to prioritise it, face major challenges in understanding what works and what does not work, what they can expect from an investment in this area, and how to explain its impact to sometimes skeptical publics." - Glad that these questions are being addressed at the SBCC summit 2018. Looking forward to discussing these questions. Would especially like to take up the question of defining what impact means for work done on digital platforms towards social and behavior change.  

Through mass media and social media there is a positive attitudinal shift toward men who go for HIV testing. 

Let's see what else we can learn from change communication at the SBCC Summit #SBCCSummit2018